Tuft-gathering mechanism for brush-making machines.



W. G. LIEBIG. TUFT GATHERING MECHANISM FOR BRUSH MAKING MACHINES. APPLICATION FILED MAR. 15. 1915.

1 ,2 36 ,954. Patented Aug. 14, 1917.

2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

1 lilhaijaj W. G. LIEBIG.

TUFT GATHERING MECHANISM FOR BRUSH MAKING MACHINES.

APPLICATION FILED MAR.15| 1915- 1 ,236,954 Patented Aug. 14, 1917.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

WILLIAM G. I-IEBIG, OF DETROIT, MIGIEIIG-AN'.

WIT-GATHERING MEGHANISM FOR BRUSH-MAKING MACHINES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 14, 1917.

Application filed March 15, 1915. Serial No. 14,586.

T'- aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM G. LIEBIG, a citizen of the United States, residin at Detroit, county of Wayne, State of ichigan, have invented a certain new and useful Imrovement in Tuft-Gathering Mechanism or Brush-Making Machines, and declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it pertains to make and use the same, reference bein had to the accompanying drawings, who form a part of this specification.

This invention relates to tuft-gathering means for brush making machines, and has for its object improvements over the constructions previously patented to me, in which an angularly inclined slotin the periphery of an oscillatory carrier member is employed to extract, at each operation, the exact quantity desired from a stored mass of bristles. This invention is directed articularly to improvements and modificatlons which make possible the successful use of the machine in connection with the very finest and frailest of bristles, whether fiber animal or wire.

In the drawings Figure 1 is a front elevation of the picker or tuft-gathering member, and of fragmentary adjacent portions of the brush making mechanism.

Fig. 2 is a front elevation, showing the picker member at the upward limit of its path of possible travel.

Fig. 3 is a side elevation partly in section, showing the relation of the two relatively movable parts of the picker member, and the relation of the picker member as a whole to the actuating slides and cams.

Fig. 1 is an enlarged elevational view of the rear face of the picker member, showing its subordinate and cooperating piece slidably mounted thereon. In this figure the slidable closure plate is in extreme retracted position with respect to the tuft-gathering slot which it is designed to close.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary elevation of the forward or toe part of the picker, also looking from rear to front of the machine, showing the slot-closing lower end of the slide plate in position of closure, with respect to the slot in the picker member, the

resence of bristles therein being indicated y dots.

Fig. 6 isan enlarged cross-sectional detail of the icker with the tuft of bristles therein, along t e line 6-6 of Fig. 5.

Fig. 7 is a View from above along the line 7-7 of Fig. 1, showing a tuft of bristles which has been deposited over the upper end of the driving funnel, about to be downwardly acted upon by the driving needle, which is shown in section.

Fig. 8 is a similar plan view of the edge of the picker and its slidable attached piece,

- designed to bring out the manner in which the forward edge of the slide piece fits exactly around the driving needle.

Fig. 9 is a front elevation, partly in section, of the driving funnel and of the tuftdriving needle just after the same has begun to bend the tuft that has been deposited in the path of its downward travel.

Fig. 10 is a detail front elevation, similar to the corresponding portion of Fig. 1, taken at a phase in the machines operation at which the picker has been raised from its depositing position over the driving funnel, and when the driving needle and with it its driven tuft of bristles has been forced downwardly into the funnel to such an extent that the two halves of the tuft are in practically the parallel position, being bent at their center, that they occupy when the driving of the tuft into the brush back has been fully completed.

The various working parts of the machine are driven from the several cams 12, mounted on the shaft 13, which is journaled in the frame of the machine. One of the slides 14:, whose anti-friction roller 15 engages in a track or groove in one of the cams, is provided at its lower end with a pair of horizontally projecting ridges or tracks 16, between which engages the anti-friction roller 17, which is mounted upon the slide plate 18, which, in turn, is slidably carried upon the main portion 19 of the picker member, through the medium of headed bolts 20, which engage in slots 21. The picker 19 is pivoted at 22 to the frame of the machine in such a way that, as the slide 14 moves up and down, the picker member 19 is oscillated about the pivot 22 as a center, so as to sweep the slot 23 in its curved periphery across the exposed forward edge of a mass of alined bristles, which are steadily fed theretoward and thereagainst. The de th of the slot 23 is regulatable by means 0 the sliding stop piece 23". At each upward sweep of the icker the slot 23 fills with bristles just beore the upward travel of the picker member ceases. In this position, due to the slidability of the plate 18 onthe main ortion 19 of the picker, the' plate is yielding y held against the pressure of the spring 25 in the position with respect thereto shown in Fig.

- 4, since it is the plate 18 upon which the roller 17 ismounted. When, however, the

slide 14: carrying the tracks or ridge pieces 7 l 16 begins its downward movement, the first effect imparted is not upon the main portion Fig. 5, thus closing the slot 23 against thev escape of the tuft of bristles therein. The swing of the entire picker continues untll the forward edge 18 of the plate 18 engages 'the adjustable stop piece 24 in the side of the machine frame, when, due to the mo mentum of the main picker piece, 19 which does not strike against this stop, it is again pushed, against the pressure "ofthe spring 25, to the retracted position shown in Fig. 4. The slot 23 is now located over the top of the funnel 26, through which the staple and tuft-driving needle 27 mounted on the slide 28, also actuated by one of the cams 12, is designed to drive the tuft into the brush back. The extreme lightness of the bristles themselves and their consequent possible tendency to stick in the slot 23 is negatived by the engagement, at that point in the operation of the machine, of the j olting pin 29 against the inclined surface 31 of the top portion 30 of the picker member, as shown particularly in Fig. 1. The impact of this jolting pin 29, which cannot e deflected from a true vertical movement, throws the main icker piece 19 sharply forward, very slight y, but sufliciently to shake out the tuft of bristles directly in the path of the now descending needle 27. The continued rotation of its actuating cam immediately raises this pin 29, so that the picker 19 can again resume its upward trave under the raising influence of its slide 14:.

In certain of my previous patents already referred to, the closure of a slot in the picker member by means of a relatively sliding plate is dealt with, but only in connection with very fine tuft material is the joint use of a positive and a spring means, for normally projecting the plate 18 into seal' position with the respect to the slot 23, necessary. And in order to insure that none of the bristles will be caught between the forward point of the plate 18 and the body of the picker 19, I preferably construct the forward edge of the plate 18 in the form illustrated particularly in Figs. 2, 7 and 8, in which the forward portion 32 is provided normally holding said notch-closmg slot-engaging end 32 o the plate from being forced away from the adjacent portion of the picker piece 19 by accidentally displaced bristles. This forward edge 32 is provided with a slotor indentation 34, which, when the tuft-gathering picker has reached the lower limit of its travel, engages about the I fluted or ribbed face of the driving needle 27, and being then in exact vertical position, serves as a guide for the needle during its downward movement, until the upward sweep of the picker member begins once more. V Y Y What I claim is: 1. In a brush making machine, in combination with a reciprocatory actuating member, an oscillatory tuft-gathering member having a notched periphery, a notch-closing member slidably mounted on said tuftgathering member and operatively connected with said actuating member, a spring for member'in position of closure with. respect to the notch in said tuft-gathering member, and

a stop adapted to be engaged by said notch-- closing member at the end of the delivering movement of the tuft-gathering member, for

effecting the opening of the notch to release the tuft of bristles.-

2. In a brush making machine, in combination with an oscillatory tuft-gatherin member, a plate slidably mounted on sai tuft-gathering member, ada ted to cooperate therewith in holding a tu of bristles removed thereby from a stored mass means for yieldingly holding said plate 1n tuftholding position on the tuft-gathering member, means adapted to be engaged by said plate at the end of each tuft-deliveringstroke whereby it is displaced from its tuft-holdingposition, and actuating means for said tuftgathering member and said plate.

3. In a brush making machine, in combination with an oscillatory tuft gatherer and carrier whose peripheral edge constantly engages a mass of alined bristles projected thereagainst in a generally horizontal'direction, a plate slidably mounted on. said tuft gatherer and carrier and capable of limited endwise movement in a plane parallel with the plane thereof, adapted to cooperate with said gatherer and carrier in seizing and remo a tuft ofbristles from the supply thereo at each oscillationof the gatherer' and carrier, a spring adapted to normally hold the plate in tuft-confining position with respect to the gatherer and carrier, and reciprocatory actuating means operatively connected with said plate, whereby said late Ill is caused to move relatively to said ga erer no and carrier at each end of its path of travel before such movement is communicated to the gatherer and carrier, thereby alternately opening and closing the bristle-confining portions of said parts.

4. Tuft-handling means for brush making machines, comprising a tuft-gathering member provided with a notched periphery, a plate slidably mounted thereon in position to close the notch in said tuft-gatheringmemher, a spring for yieldingly holding the same in position of closure with res ect thereto, an actuating member operative y connected with said plate, whereby the plate is first actuated with respect to the tuft-gathering member, and whereby actuation is thereafter communicated to the tuft-gathering member, an adjustable stop member adapted to be engaged by the plate at the end of the tuftdelivering cycle of operations, whereb the plate is moved, against the pressure 0 said spring, away from its position of closure with respect to the tuft of bristles and an impacting member adapted to engage the tuft-gathering member upon the releasing movement of the plate, thereby shaking the tuft of bristles loose from the notch.

5. The combination of an oscillatory tuftgathering member, a'plate slidably mounted thereon, adapted to cooperate therewith in seizing and holding a tuft of bristles during a portion of each cycle of operation, an actuating member operatively connected with said plate and thereby adapted to also actuate said tuft-gathering member, whereby both members are moved to and fro along a limited path of travel, and whereby at each end of such path of travel, the plate is moved relatively to the tuft-gathering member, and an impact member against which said plate is adapted to engage at the delivery end of its travel, thereby causing the then released tuft of bristles to fall.

6. The combination of a tuft-gathering member, a closure plate slidably mounted thereon and capable of limited relative movement with respect thereto, means for first actuating the closure plate with respect to the tuft-gathering member to effect the holding of a tuft of bristles engaged by the tuft-gathering member, and for thereafter moving the tuft-gathering member with the closure plate, and an adjustable stop member located in the path of travel of the closure plate adapted to halt the further movement thereof after a predetermined distance has been traversed, while permitting slight further movement of the tuft-gatheringmember, thereby releasing the tuft of bristles for removal.

7 A tuft-gathering member for brush making machinery, comprising a main portion adapted to engage a mass of bristles and remove a tuft therefrom at each cycle of operations, and an auxiliary member slidably correlated therewith, whereby the tuft is held against escape until the point of its intended release is reached, a spring foryieldingly holding the auxiliary member in position of closure with respect to the main a stop member adapted to be engaged by said auxiliary member at the end of each tuftcarrying movement, thereby shaking the tuft of bristles free therefrom and from said main portion.

portion and its removed tuft of bristles, and 

